Abstract:
A pot experiment was conducted at the net house of the research farm of Sher-eBangla
Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207 during the period from JanuaryJune
2018.
The
experiment
was
conducted
to
observe
the
effect
of
biochar
(BC)
on
cadmium
(Cd) accumulation in red amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) and on soil
health. In this experiment, the treatment consisted of four doses of BC viz.
BC
0
= no BC, BC
1
=1% BC of soil wt., BC
2
= 2% BC of soil wt., BC
4
= 4% BC of
soil wt. and Cd
0
= no Cd, Cd
5
= 5 ppm Cd, Cd
15
= 15 ppm Cd. The experiment
was laid out in Complete Randomize Design (CRD) with five replications. The
collected data were statistically analyzed for evaluation of the treatment effects.
Results showed that significant variations were found among the treatments for
the observed parameters such as Cd in stem, leaf and root, total and available Cd
in bulk and rhizosphere soils, soil pH, bulk density and porosity. The lowest Cd
accumulation in plant stem, plant leaf and plant root was found in the treatments
with 4% BC of soil wt. addition. Higher amount of total Cd in bulk and
rhizosphere soil was observed in the treatments of higher amount of BC
.However, lower amount of bio-available Cd was found in soils with higher
amount of BC indicating that stabilization of Cd is promoted by BC. Biochar
application also reduced the bulk density and increased porosity and pH
indicating improved soil health for better crop production in an acid soil. It was
observed from this study that red amaranth accumulated significant amount of
Cd even at low concentration (5ppm) which is alarming. As BC reduced the Cd
accumulation significantly it can be concluded that metal stabilizer like BC may
be used as soil amendment in reducing the heavy metal uptake by leafy
vegetables grown in contaminated soil
Description:
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Agriculture,
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207
In partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
II
MASTER OF SCIENCE (MS)
IN
SOIL SCIENCE
